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Topaz
Annemarie Young (born October 15, 1989), also known as the superhero Topaz, is one of the original Wingwomen. Her powers are superhuman strength, stamina, and healing. Early life Young was born and raised in an affluent part of Albany, New York, the oldest of three daughters. Her father was killed in a car accident involving a delivery truck when she was nine, and the family received a large settlement from the delivery company in court. Later, Young would reveal in an interview that this was approximately when her mother Deborah began to exhibit emotionally abusive behavior towards her. She endured her mother's behavior for the next eight years, achieving straight A's and high scores on her standardized tests, but the stress of her home life took a tremendous toll on her emotional health. Accident and superpowers In spring 2007, when Young was seventeen, she was struck in a hit-and-run accident by what was initially believed to be a garbage truck, although footage captured by a nearby traffic camera cast doubts on that version of events. Young lay unconscious in a puddle for fifteen minutes, and when she woke up, she discovered an exponential increase in her physical strength. Panicked, she fled Albany and ended up in New York, where she almost immediately saved a child who was about to step in front of a bus -- her first credited save, although she did not officially adopt the moniker Topaz until a couple of weeks later. The scientific community has not yet reached a consensus as to the source of Young's superpowers, although it is by now generally accepted that the vehicle that initially hit Young was not really a garbage truck. Some have wondered if Young is telling the entire truth about the accident, speculating that she may have deliberately gained superpowers somehow. Others have hypothesized that the puddle in which she came to rest contained some sort of biological or chemical reagent that affected her physiology in some way. This hypothesis was bolstered further by a 2012 interview in the Albany Daily ''with one of Young's former teachers, Kyla McDonald, who recalled seeing a girl lying on the sidewalk near the high school's soccer field and twitching uncontrollably. "I called 911," McDonald told the ''Daily, "and then I went outside to help myself, because I'd been trained in CPR, but by the time I got outside, the girl was gone. It wasn't till later, when the news of Topaz saving that child in New York broke, that I realized what I must have seen." Career Early years and battle with her mother For approximately three years after initially gaining her powers, Young worked as a superhero almost exclusively in and around New York under the moniker Topaz, never revealing her civilian identity. However, in a 2010 interview with Diane Sawyer, she revealed that her mother (who she didn't name at the time) had been emotionally abusive towards her for a long time, often using a doll as a tool of emotional blackmail in the vein of Elf on the Shelf. Her departure from Albany was most immediately precipitated, though, by her mother catching her behind West Collins High School with her then-girlfriend; Young was fleeing her mother when the accident happened. Deborah Young, as the Albany Daily ''reported via an interview with middle child Lily, had become enraged when her friends reached out and asked her if the doll Topaz had mentioned was the doll in her front entryway. The next day, Topaz was on ''The Today Show, talking with Matt Lauer and Natalie Morales, when Deborah crashed through one of the studio windows and attacked her. After a brief yet vicious tussle, Deborah lost consciousness and was transported to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where she died from internal bleeding. Coroners confirmed that Deborah had tried to recreate the circumstances surrounding her daughter's accident in order to give herself superpowers; though she somehow succeeded, her collision with a truck caused fatal internal injuries. Joining the Wingwomen Young was Valerie Holloway AKA Redwing's first recruit after she founded the Wingwomen, and during her tenure as a Wingwoman she has cemented a reputation as a formidable hero, easily the most combative-minded of all her teammates. She saved Redwing from an assassination attempt in 2013 by taking out a sniper with a flying tackle, and she has also been known to simply throw people at other people during fights. Personal life In 2010, shortly after her mother's death, Young became the legal guardian to her two sisters, Lily and Mikaela. Lily is currently studying film at NYU, and Mikaela is in high school. They live in Paramus, New Jersey. Topaz action shot 1.png Topaz action shot 4.png Topaz action shot 6.png